I was born in Harrisburg, PA and I have 2 siblings that are both ten years older than me, which means that I was luckily born when my siblings were in prime roller coaster riding age. Every year, we would visit Hersheypark and I sat with my mother and I loved watching the roller coasters cycle, listening to the train toot, and smelling the wonderful chocolate as my siblings were waiting in line for the rides. At a young age, I became interested in the mechanics roller coasters. I remember sitting in front of Storm Runner's launch for hours, cheering every time I heard "Now get ready, here we go!" immediately followed by screams as the train accelerated to the ride's top hat element. In kindergarten, my class would draw pictures for our classmate's birthday. I would always draw what I thought were roller coasters, but were probably just scribbles. On my 6th birthday, I received about 15 pages in scribbles in return, but that was when I realized that I wanted to be a roller coaster designer. Ever since, I've been trying to learn about the responsibilities of roller coaster designers, the physics and mechanics of the coasters, and the reasoning for what makes a ride popular. That has brought me to the present, where I'm still on my journey to becoming a roller coaster designer. I connected with Nathan Naversen on LinkedIn and he told me I could get the best theme park industry advice from the people on this site, so here I am!
If you'd made it all the way through my story, I'd love to hear about your story or any advice you have about finding a job or about adding anything to my story.
